Your Right to Know

September 26, 2012

The liberal-leaning political blog
Plunderbund
is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to order Ohio Treasuer Josh Mandel to turn over public records it
claims were illegally withheld by his office.

Plunderbund Media filed an action seeking a writ of mandamus from the court on
Monday, claiming Mandel was alone among five Republican statewide officeholders in failing to turn
over records requested in March.

In its
complaint, the blog
stated it asked Gov. John Kasich, Attorney General Mike DeWine, Auditor Dave Yost, Secretary of
State Jon Husted and Mandel for copies of public-records requests, records-request logs and the
offices’ correspondence about the requests between Jan. 1, 2011 and May 31.

The officials, with the exception of Mandel, provided the requested records in a
timely manner, the complaint says.

After several inquiries by the blog, the auditor’s office responded on Sept. 14,
sending Plunderbund a list of 56 persons and organizations that had filed records requests, but not
including the requests and related communications.

Seth Metcalf, Mandel’s general counsel, denied the records to Plunderbund, writing
that its request was "overly broad" and constituted improper interference with the office’s duties
since the requested records were voluminous.

In its court filing, Plunderbund denounces Mandel’s response to its requests as
"inadequate and evasive" and seeks an award of attorney fees if it prevails.

"In our response, we provided new information to Mr. Mismas so that he could file a
legally compliant request. Instead of filing a legally compliant request, Mr. Mismas chose to file
a lawsuit," Unger said.

Mismas countered: "The only thing that appears to be 'politically motivated' is Mr.
Metcalf's refusal to respond to our request simply because we have been critical of his boss Josh
Mandel."

He pointed out that the other officeholders promptly provided thousands of pages of
records, demonstrating that Plunderbund's request was neither overly broad nor burdensome.

Mandel is opposing U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, in the Nov. 6 election.